In Retreat: America's Withdrawal from the Middle East
()
About this ebook
Explaining how the U.S. withdrawal from the Middle East could have long-term consequences as other forces come forward to fill the gap, Russell A. Berman details how the retreat began and how the reduction of the U.S. commitment has, in turn, set off a wave of repercussions. He analyzes what motivates such a retreat, how much it is a choice of the Obama administration, and how much it is rooted in U.S. cultural leanings that could outlast the administration. In Retreat warns not only about changing evaluations about this specific corner of the globe but also about predispositions to retreat from politics altogether, from the burden of leadership, and from the advocacy for democracy.
Read more from Russell A. Berman
Freedom or Terror: Europe Faces Jihad Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAnti-Americanism in Europe: A Cultural Problem Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to In Retreat
Related ebooks
Of Empires and Citizens: Pro-American Democracy or No Democracy at All? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Truth about Syria Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Grand Strategy for America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWorld in Crisis: The End of the American Century Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmerica's Continuing Misadventures in the Middle East Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAftershocks: Great Powers and Domestic Reforms in the Twentieth Century Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Back to Istanbul: On Foot across Europe to the Great Silk Road Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSustainable Peace in Northeast Asia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe American Consul: A History of the United States Consular Service 1776–1924. Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsArtificial intelligence and the future of warfare: The USA, China, and strategic stability Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow to Make Peace in the Middle East in Six Months or Less: Without Leaving Your Apartment Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Partitioning for Peace: An Exit Strategy for Iraq Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKilling the Rising Sun | Summary Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShaping Strategy: The Civil-Military Politics of Strategic Assessment Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Making of Southeast Asia: International Relations of a Region Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFire In the East: The Rise of Asian Military Power and the Second Nuclear Age Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Israeli Foreign Policy: A People Shall Not Dwell Alone Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Long War: CENTCOM, Grand Strategy, and Global Security Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmerica Unbound: The Bush Revolution in Foreign Policy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary of Jason Goodwin's Lords of the Horizons Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRevitalizing the Silk Road: China's Belt and Road Initiative Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEurope: The Shattering of Illusions Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5China's New Diplomacy Concept: Building a Community of Shared Future for Mankind Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGood Governance Gone Bad: How Nordic Adaptability Leads to Excess Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRussian Grand Strategy in the era of global power competition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsContested Memories in Chinese and Japanese Foreign Policy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVarieties of Muslim Experience: Encounters with Arab Political and Cultural Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhat Is Modernity?: Writings of Takeuchi Yoshimi Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLeaders at War: How Presidents Shape Military Interventions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
International Relations For You
The Art of War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Protocol: The Power of Diplomacy and How to Make It Work for You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Can We Talk About Israel?: A Guide for the Curious, Confused, and Conflicted Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In the Garden of Beasts: by Erik Larson | Summary & Analysis: Love, Terror and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Second Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When China Attacks: A Warning to America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBonded Labor: Tackling the System of Slavery in South Asia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mossad: The Greatest Missions of the Israeli Secret Service Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Case Against Hillary Clinton Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Inside the CIA Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Punishment of Gaza Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Putin's Playbook: Russia's Secret Plan to Defeat America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The CIA as Organized Crime: How Illegal Operations Corrupt America and the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Palestine-Israel Conflict: A Basic Introduction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sex and World Peace Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fidel Castro: My Life: A Spoken Autobiography Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Coup: 1953, the CIA, and the Roots of Modern U.S.-Iranian Relations Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5War with Russia?: From Putin & Ukraine to Trump & Russiagate Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The War of Return: How Western Indulgence of the Palestinian Dream Has Obstructed the Path to Peace Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Pentagon Papers: The Secret History of the Vietnam War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for In Retreat
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
In Retreat - Russell A. Berman
HERBERT AND JANE DWIGHT WORKING GROUP ON ISLAMISM AND THE INTERNATIONAL ORDER
Many of the writings associated with this Working Group will be published by the Hoover Institution. Materials published to date, or in production, are listed below.
ESSAY SERIES:
THE GREAT UNRAVELING: THE REMAKING OF THE MIDDLE EAST
In Retreat: America’s Withdrawal from the Middle East
Russell A. Berman
Israel and the Arab Turmoil
Itamar Rabinovich
Reflections on the Revolution in Egypt
Samuel Tadros
The Struggle for Mastery in the Fertile Crescent
Fouad Ajami
The Weaver’s Lost Art
Charles Hill
The Consequences of Syria
Lee Smith
ESSAYS
Saudi Arabia and the New Strategic Landscape
Joshua Teitelbaum
Islamism and the Future of the Christians of the Middle East
Habib C. Malik
Syria through Jihadist Eyes: A Perfect Enemy
Nibras Kazimi
The Ideological Struggle for Pakistan
Ziad Haider
Syria, Iran, and Hezbollah: The Unholy Alliance and Its War on Lebanon
Marius Deeb
[For a list of books published under the auspices of the WORKING GROUP ON ISLAMISM AND THE INTERNATIONAL ORDER, please see page 61.]
The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, founded at Stanford University in 1919 by Herbert Hoover, who went on to become the thirty-first president of the United States, is an interdisciplinary research center for advanced study on domestic and international affairs. The views expressed in its publications are entirely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the staff, officers, or Board of Overseers of the Hoover Institution.
www.hoover.org
Hoover Institution Press Publication No. 646
Hoover Institution at Leland Stanford Junior University, Stanford, California, 94305-6010
Copyright © 2014 by the Board of Trustees of the
Leland Stanford Junior University
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher and copyright holders.
For permission to reuse material from In Retreat: America’s Withdrawal from the Middle East, by Russell A. Berman, ISBN 978-0-8179-1725-8, please access www.copyright.com or contact the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400. CCC is a not-for-profit organization that provides licenses and registration for a variety of uses.
Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-0-8179-1725-8 (pbk.: alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-8179-1726-5 (epub)
ISBN 978-0-8179-1727-2 (mobi)
ISBN 978-0-8179-1728-9 (PDF)
The Hoover Institution gratefully acknowledges the following individuals and foundations for their significant support of the
HERBERT AND JANE DWIGHT WORKING GROUP ON ISLAMISM AND THE INTERNATIONAL ORDER:
Herbert and Jane Dwight
Beall Family Foundation
Stephen Bechtel Foundation
Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
Mr. and Mrs. Clayton W. Frye Jr.
Lakeside Foundation
CONTENTS
Series Foreword
by Fouad Ajami and Charles Hill
In Retreat: America’s Withdrawal from the Middle East
Retreat from Politics
Retreat from Leadership
Retreat from Democracy
About the Author
About the Hoover Institution’s Herbert and Jane Dwight Working Group on Islamism and the International Order
Index
SERIES FOREWORD
The Great Unraveling: The Remaking of the Middle East
IT’S A MANTRA, but it is also true: the Middle East is being unmade and remade. The autocracies that gave so many of these states the appearance of stability are gone, their dreaded rulers dispatched to prison or exile or cut down by young people who had yearned for the end of the despotisms. These autocracies were large prisons, and in 2011, a storm overtook that stagnant world. The spectacle wasn’t pretty, but prison riots never are. In the Fertile Crescent,